GOP leaders on gay marriage: Sound of silence

President Barack Obama’s embrace of same-sex marriage was viewed for so long as such a risky move that operatives in both parties expected it to drop like a bomb, handing Republicans a powerful wedge issue in an election year.

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Gillespie: We'll run on marriage

Top Republican officeholders went out of their way Thursday to try to shift the conversation back to the economy. The GOP’s House and Senate campaign committees practically ignored it. And prominent Republican strategists are warning the party to steer clear of it.

One notable exception is Ed Gillespie, a top adviser to the presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Gillespie predicted on MSNBC that Obama’s support of same-sex marriage would become a significant campaign issue. And, signaling divisions within the party, cultural conservatives said Romney would be foolish not to capitalize on Obama’s announcement. But Romney himself made no mention of it Thursday during a fundraiser and public event.

The muted Republican response calls into question long-standing assumptions that the president’s endorsement would prove perilous, used by the GOP as a turnout and organizing tool in the same way that former President George W. Bush’s campaign relied on anti-gay marriage initiatives in swing states in 2004 to motivate his supporters.

There’s still plenty of time for the GOP to modify its strategy, but the relative silence from national Republicans so far suggests 2012 may look nothing like 2004.

The early calculation by Republicans is that it’s not worth diverting attention from the economy, which remains Obama’s biggest weakness, and that an intense focus on gay marriage may actually further alienate women and younger voters who were turned off by the GOP’s focus earlier this year on limiting access to birth control.

“This election is all about jobs, the economy, spending and the debt,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster who advised former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s presidential campaign. “The president’s decision is not going to change that fundamental foundation. It might make a difference at the margins, especially in culturally conservative states and among cultural conservatives. But it just is not where voters are.”

“I recommend that Republicans focus like a laser on the economy,” Ayres added.

Democrats were the ones playing offense. The Obama campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee used the issue to appeal for donations. The White House highlighted the president’s ABC News interview in an email to supporters. And gay-rights advocates in Massachusetts went on the attack against Republican Sen. Scott Brown, who is locked in a tight race with Elizabeth Warren.

“The president’s focus, as I think he also said yesterday in his interview, has been and will continue to be on jobs and the economy,” Carney said. “Creating greater security for a middle class in this country that has been under stress for a long time, even predating the Great Recession, has been [the] No. 1 priority. It was his No. 1 priority when he ran for office, for this office, and it has been his priority since he took the oath of office. And I think you will hear him focus on those issues just as he has — going forward, just as he has in the past.”

The Republicans caution was apparent on multiple fronts Thursday.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) refused to get drawn into the debate, telling reporters that he believes marriage should be between “one man and one woman” and then quickly returned to the economy.

“The president can talk about it all he wants. I’m going to stay focused on what the American people want us to stay focused on, and that’s jobs,” he said.

Republicans are in the business of catering to those in our older generation who are conservative. They will have to dramatically remake their party over the next ten years, or they will be left in the dustbin of history.

Being black … left-handed or being gay is just as natural. Bibles and the torah which includes leviticus 18:22 should be immediately banned for promoting hatred against minorities; namely the gay community and the crosses removed from all schools and churches. The evil writings in Leviticus 18:22 against gays depict; rules for temple rituals or “P” … Priestly Rules & expanded by the pope; homophobes and religious frauds to attack the gay community and never meant to apply to the public but to priests. Leviticus exists in the old testament & torah. "It is written; so therefore it shall be? We are the chosen people? Such a wicked fantasy." To see the religious lunatics manipulate government and our lives is shameful. It is a sometimes rare occurrence to fall in Love and to hold that person in your heart and be loved in return ... it is something that should be celebrated! If it is between two guys or girls all the better. It takes even more courage to defend that LOVE! How would you like it … if hate speech was directed to your brother or sister as you sat in the pew; spewed by some better than thou religious lunatic with a hateful black book about Leviticus -- under his arm? The pope and churches fully aware that Leviticus 18:22 applies only to priests; refuse to remove this stigma maliciously persecuting gays – and many kids bullied into suicide …!

Allow me to translate: Damn, Romney and the GOP did not take the bait and get off-message!

To quote that well-known Conservative Paul Begala: "There is no there there!

Obama has done absolutely nothing expect to say he is in favor of Gay Marriage. He is not putting forth National legislation, it will not be added to the Party Platform and he believes it is a States Rights issue.

Nothing to see here, move along. And Robin Roberts, if you take some Ibuprofen and a shot of Brandy, those chills you say you are feeling will go away!

Old school thought is that being gay is deviant to the norm of being heterosexual. But, if one really studies statistics, and you can accurately determine that a certain percentage of people are born homosexual, is it really deviant? Or, is it really a statistical norm, and just as normal as being heterosexual, just at a smaller percentage?

How about this one Carrie; Obama "Duck and Cover On Gay Marriage Issue" How long did he duck and cover? Silence? All I've heard from Mitt is he believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Can you say that about Duck and Cover Obummer?

This is a non issue with most voters. The actions today by the House GOP in turning their budget knife to domestic programs to protect the Pentagon, made my decision on who I'm voting for this November.

"Gay marriage"? What's that supposed to mean? True marriage is between man and woman; only that, and none other. Republicans are right to be reticent on a disgusting depravity that doesn't deserve the dignity of discussion.